half the world away: Andrew's travel blog
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Aug. 11th, 2010
After departing from Chad, I made my way to the bustling hamlet of Iksan, where I met Hyesung, her sister (YoonJung), Julian, Craig and Lei. They were staying with an older man that was friends with YoonJung. It was such a great experience and I wish I had arrived earlier but I enjoyed the time with him while I could. We were out in the middle of the country, in his friends house, which was surrounded by rice paddies. REALLY cool. I felt like I was REALLY in Korea instead of in a Westernized Version of Korea.
The next morning we awoke early...like 4:30ish early. The roosters were out in full force, so a lot of us were very groggy, especially those who drank a lot the night before (thankfully I arrived late so I didn't get that effect!). After a quick breakfast, we were off on a boat to Seonyudo. I had been there once before last Chuseok with Alex if anybody can
remember.
Me, Craig, YoonJung and HyesungWe arrived around 10:00am to the island and were taken to our Minbak (hotel with no beds so you sleep on the floor). We had a quick bite to eat, but the clams in the soup were really really sandy and it kind of ruined the already overpriced meal. We spent most of the day lazing around the beach. The water was really warm, I was very surprised. The tide also came in very high and it was amazing how much the beach changed between high tide and low tide.
After the beach, we headed for a walk to one of the connecting islands. We stopped at bought some Hwae (raw rish) and some Soju and Beer for dinner. We had a great spot as we just sat there and watched the sunset in the west. Very enjoyable! We had ourselves a fun/small party that night and ended back at the beach.
While on the beach I snuck off to see what all these people were doing with flashlights in the sand. It turns out there were searching for strange sea creatures that they would later grill and eat. As the token white guy out on the beach with them, they welcomed me in typical Korean fashion and I was hard at work trying to find these things. We got about 4 or 5 of them and then I had had enough so I went back. It was such a great experience. I've never done anything like that so it was really awesome to watch and to participate.
We ended up in bed early...probably by about 11:00pm. The sun had done us in.
The following day we explored other parts of the island which was a lot of fun. The previous night Julian had caught a cricket, which was now his pet. And apparently (as of August 6th anyway) it was still alive! Impressive!
We eventually hopped onto the oversold boat (no seats for us...hate to think about the life jackets availability) and I made my way back to Busan.
I was really hoping to get out of Korea this year for my holidays, but staying in Korea ended up being a great time and a good closure to my time here.
Craig and I on the beach
Hyesung and I on the beach
Me, Craig, Julian and Lei
Dinner!
Sunset
The Sisters Kim
Wow, I'm so pale.
HyesungOur final night in Jejudo, we went to Baghdad Cafe (or was in Bangkok Cafe?). Either way, it wasn't Iraqi or Thai food. It was a great little Indian/Nepalese restaurant in Jeju City. We stuffed ourselves royally.
Afterwords, we took a cab to the one and only Loveland. A place that my parents and I didn't end up going to together, I wonder why?
It was a very amusing place, lots of pornographic statues and exhibits, but all in all, it was pretty tame, compared to say, the Amsterdam Sex Museum I went to a few years back. I think the pictures will describe it best.
The next day we headed up to Seoul, found ourselves a small apartment in Sincheon Area and then after a nice Vietnamese Dinner, we went out in Hongdae area. It was a lot of fun. The bar Chad wanted to go to ended up being closed. So we went to this small makoli (fermented rice drink) bar. At first things were pretty tame, but things really picked up when a Jenga game made an appearance. It was a really cool place that was deisgned for Korean about to go into the army, and those who just got back. I dont think they got many foreigners in. But we made friends with the regulars quickly.
Soldier walking through the hall of names memorial The next day we went to Itaewan and then to the Korean War Museum. My parents told me to go there and it really is a must go place. Information overload, but really really amazing. Lots of great exhibits, movies, pictures. Completely bilingual too.
That ended our week trip, and we ended up taking different buses to our next stop. Chad to Busan, me to Iksan. Lots and lots of fun was had on the trip and I'm really glad we went!!
Sculpture 
Mosaic ( Loveland Pictures )The next part of our trip took us to the Jungmun Resort area. Unfortunately the weather started raining while there, so we were not able to go to the beach as planned, but we did get to see some other cool sites.
We went to a three-teared waterfall, which compared to the other waterfalls on the island that I have previously seen, was impressive. But it was hot...SO hot. We were in a subtropical rain forest, and that is exactly what it felt like. The rain helped cool things down a bit.
We also went and checked out the REALLY impressive Yakcheon Temple. It was VERY commercial, and it was a very new temple (construction was still being done). But despite that, it was really a site to see. The main hall was 4 levels, 3 of them open to the public. It was suppose to have 30,000ish Buddha Statues, however it turned out that they were all basically leftovers from the souvenir stand, put into a glass case. That aside, the temple was well worth the visit.
The Yeomiji Botanical gardens were a bit of a let down. The open gardens outside were very very pathetic. Weeds growing everywhere, un-pruned bushes. It was laughable. However the indoor gardens were very beautiful. Lots of different zones, for example water plants, cactus room, fruit room etc.
The resort area, was well, just as I remembered it. Over the top, pricey and resort-like. That day I was informed that I passed my black belt test (another blog post will have more details). So Chad was incredibly generous and treated me to a wonderful dinner. We went out for drinks afterwords, which was highly entertaining as I don't think the bartenders had ever met a foreigner that could speak Korean (Chad can). The look in their eyes was priceless. Pure awe.
Phonebooth 
Waterfall - Level 2 
Yakcheon Temple 
Yakcheon Temple 
Yakcheon Temple 
Yakcheon Temple 
Yakcheon Temple 
Yeomiji Botanical Gardens 
Yeomiji Botanical Gardens 
Yeomiji Botanical Gardens 
Yeomiji Botanical GardensOne of the highlights of the trip was going Scuba Diving for the first time. Chad has his Dive Masters, or Open Waters or something, and he really wanted to go. I was a bit hesitant as I am not the strongest swimmer, but I loved it.
We went through Ralph, who runs BigBlue33 (www.bigblue33.co.kr). I did a Discovery Dive which basically meant I am just along for the ride.
On Little Munsom We caught a boat from the harbour which took us out to a rocky island (Little Munsom) that had lots of Korean divers preparing. Ralph did a safety talk with me and told me what to expect, and then helped me gear up. The gear was really really heavy, but luckily I didn't have to wear it on land for much time at all.
We went in the water, did some test breathing and then started to descend. It was totally disorienting as I really seemed to have no control at all of my body. So Ralph REALLY helped me out with everything. In the meanwhile, Chad was around swimming near us, and probably laughing to himself and how awkward I think I was. We hit about 3 meteres down and then I got some ear issues. It took me a long time to "pressurize" but finally I did it and we were underway.
It was AMAZING how much life there is below the surface. I felt like I was living a BBC Planet Earth show...and Chad told me that the visibility wasn't even that great! But I loved it. We saw lots and lots of fish, a few schools, some coral, seaweed. All sorts of crazy things that I don't even know the names of.
The total dive was 26 minutes, and we went down to a depth of 12 meters which is about all a new person is allowed/should go down to. Chad and Ralph then did another dive after mine, where apparently it got very cold, but they saw lots of cool sea life.
If anybody ever has the chance to go diving, even just the discovery dive I did. DO IT! Really really amazing. I was so worried about the breathing, and things like that, but I had such an amazing time with no problems at all.
Unfortunately, no pictures underwater.
Chad taking the plunge 
Jul. 9th, 2010
On Thursday I probably had the best lunch (maybe even meal) I've ever had in Korea...and it was from our school cafeteria! It was a great surprise. We had fried duck/veggies and onions wrapped in white kimchi, with udong Soup, rice, and delicious dried/caramelized cuttlefish/squid. SO good. Somehow I ended up ordering a kilogram of this duck for myself from the food distributor so I'll be eating duck for the rest of my time in Korea.
Today's lunch wasn't bad, but it was a tad heavy on fish. It was fried fish, with process fish cakes (basically fish hot-dog), fish soup, rice and kimchi. I was thinking that in the west it would be equivalent to Chicken Wings served with hot dogs, beef stew and noodles.
Our lunches this year are a huge upgrade from last semester. I can remember one day where we had JaJangMyeon (Black Bean Sauce with Rice), and the sauce was SO bad that everybody just ate plain rice for lunch...not too fun.
I'm not sure if I've ever blogged about lunch time in a Korean school. I decided its about time since it really can make/break your day. Unlike back home, lunch is provided to all students and teachers. Its a set menu that is incredibly nutritious (I've heard in America the lunches are not healthy at all). At both school's I've worked at, the non-homeroom teachers eat in our own lunch room. Which often ends up being a very meditative meal for me since I don't usually understand what is being said and I'm often not included in conversations (but after 2 years of this, I've come to terms with it).
You can usually help yourself and the food usually looks like the photo below.
Jul. 5th, 2010
Well this trip has been a long time coming. Dan and Maggie came to Korea last September, and I had not been up to see them yet. So I finally made it up this past weekend and I had a great time!
Buyeo is a small (but not as small as I thought), town in the west/central part of Korea. By car, it probably wouldn't take that long to get there but there are no direct buses/trains from Busan so it was a bit of a journey. Not hard by any means, just long.
I was greeted by Dan and Maggie Saturday afternoon as I arrived at the Bus station and they were wonderful hosts the entire weekend. We walked around the city (literally walked the whole city) a few times and saw some of the sights along the way. Buyeo has a beautiful Lotus Pond Park. I think if I had come up a week or two later it would have been spectacular as the Lotus' were not yet in full bloom.
The outside of their apartment They have a cute apartment. Its a bit run-down, but they seem to have managed well with it. That afternoon Dan and I caught up on lots of things which I really enjoyed, and we then went to check out the Buyeo National Museum...which should really be renamed "Buyeo Bowl Museum" as all they really had were hundreds of old bowls.
In the evening we met some of their friends for BBQ Galbi, went to a Makali (fermented rice drink) bar and then watched the soccer game.
Sunday we had a nice sleep in, and went to see Buyeo's famous suicide rock. This is the place where 3,000 (yes..three thousand) women jumped off this rock when King Bukje died...leaving them with no reason to live and nobody to serve. A bit of a gruesome place, but nowadays its really nice.
It was great seeing them and I hope they can make their way down to Busan before we all head home.
Inside the StadiumJun. 27th, 2010
Inside the Stadium Well as some people might know, I started taking Taekwondo and Haedong Gumdo (sword fighting) last November. I never in a million years thought I'd be taking a martial arts class, let alone going 5 days a week for 7 months, and the idea of doing a black belt test seemed pretty absurd. But, I guess that is what traveling is all about, trying out new things and stepping outside of your comfort zone. And I'm SO happy I did as it has been one of the best things that has happened to me in Korea.
Anyways, June 27th was D-Day for me. It was my test for my blackbelt, first den. It was done in the Busan basketball stadium, and there were probably about 400 other people being tested. Being one of 3 white people in Taekwondo gear in the entire place, I felt like all eyes were on me. However, by the time my turn came around, most of the people had cleared out as adults go on at the end (children first).
I've done lots of presentations, ran a lot of races and played in school band back in the day, but I've never been quite so nervous as I was for this. Hundreds of hours all came down to a 3 minute long test.
I can't say much about the test as I was totally on auto-pilot. I don't really remember anything to be honest. Thankfully I got 2 videos of it, so you can watch it and enjoy and see what it is all about.
Video from the other competitors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt-2JPcy82sMy video (takes a loooong time to load):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFkrN-XYxZEMaster Jun, Master Song, Dave, Kendall and Hyesung all came out to support me and I really appreciate that they did!
I'm still waiting on my results, but I should know sometime in July.
Nervous! 
Jun hoping his student doesn't bring the gym's name down. 
While waiting, Dave and Kendall killed the boredom by taking random pictures 
Hyesung snooping through my bag...Jun. 26th, 2010
Waiting for the Game to start at Haeundae After spending time in Korea during World Cup time, I think I've reached the conclusion that if I'm ever going to travel during World Cup time, I need to go to a country that is in it. Korea went completely mad this year and it was awesome.
I ended up watching 3 of the 4 Korean games.
For the first game I went to Haeundae Beach as they had a giant TV screen showing the game. I've heard rumours that anywhere from 50-100,000 people were there watching. It was a sea of red shirts, red devil horns, facepaint and Korean flags. We were sitting really far back, and by the first 15 minutes, everybody in front of us was standing and blocking our view. We decided to move and build a sand mound, which put us about 3 or 4 inches higher then everybody else and we had a great view of the screen. Korea ended up beat Greece 2-0, and I think the entire country was hung over the next day.
The second game we ventured out to Asiad Stadium. Its a massive stadium that was built for the Asiad Games and the World Cup when it was here in 2002. It was free to go in, and they had the game televised on their two Jumbotrons. I would honestly say the stadium (maybe 65,000 capacity) was about 98% full. People were cheering SO loudly, I would even say that they could hear us in South Africa. Unfortunately Argentina won that game, and by the end of the game, the mood was very sad.
The next game was at 3:30am so I didn't bother getting up for it. I did however wake up because of the screams and shouts that were going on outside of my window when Korea scored. It sounded like North Korea had attacked. It was very eerie.
The final game was on the 26th. The day before my Taekwondo test, so I wasn't able to go out and do anything too crazy. I ended up watching it outside on one of the giant TV's near my house. It was a lot of fun, and a bit more quiet then the other venues.
I've never really appreciated what the World Cup is or its popularity until I was in Korea.
Canada, we may be the best at hockey, but we could learn a thing or two about soccer.
Red Devils 
Rain, wind and heat...we look like we've seen better days 
Spot the white guy. 
Inside Asiad Stadium 
Jun. 24th, 2010
Today marked Haesong's annual Camilia Teacher's Party. It was a day to celebrate the Camilia flowers that line the school yard and parking lot. Apparently our principal really likes them and so this is a kind of teacher-bonding afternoon.
It involved getting into teams, reading some pledges to the flowers and then playing games. The first game was the standard ring toss (a game in which I'm told is exclusively Korean), and then a flicking-of-bottle-caps game...or a dumbed down version of Crokinole. Our team came in 2nd place for the flicking-of-bottle-caps game.
After the games teachers brought out lots of food and drinks (soju, makali, Korean moonshine) and so we all say in the parking lot having a grand old time. I can see that going over too well back home!!
Principal flicking 
My coteacher Amy 
Camelia FlowersJun. 13th, 2010
On Saturday morning I headed out to Gwangalli Beach for the annual Eobang (Fish Theme) Festival. I went to the festival last year but was rather disappointed. This year however, Master Jun and I arranged a team for the rafting race in the morning. There were 12 teams that were divided into 3 groups. Our team, Team Trinity had 9 people, none of us who knew anything at all about rafting which really hindered our performance. The course was maybe 400m or so and its a figure 4 pattern.
We thought we had a decent chance at doing well, but as soon as we go in the boat, things just didn't seem to work. We pretty much zig-zaged the whole race as we couldn't figure out how to go straight. So we didn't qualify for the final race. But no problem, it was fun! The two teams that beat us in our heat actually ended up placing 2nd and 3rd in the finals.
Jun. 8th, 2010
For somebody who does not love the beach, I sure spent a lot of time there this weekend. It started off with a very relaxing evening on Gwagnali Beach Friday night for Mila's birthday. It was a lot of fun but I was really tired so it was not a late night for me. I love Gwangan Beach, so beautiful at night! Going to have to go back more this summer.
Friday through Sunday was the 6th Annual Sand Festival at Haeundae Beach. On Saturday afternoon I met SaeEun for lunch, then a movie, then exploring the Sand Castles, then dinner with Matt and Tony. It was a really fun day as I haven't seen her for a while. We saw the new Robin Hood movie which was enjoyable, but I still think Prince of Thieves is much better.
On Sunday Chad called me up and so I met him and some of his friends at Haeundae Beach which was nice. In typical Andrew fashion I had so much sun screen on that I think I ended up whiter then when I arrived. After a quick dinner at a terrific sandwich store (Brucella's I think?) we went to watch the Busan International Dance Festival. There were about 6 performances from various dance groups around the world. A lot of them were too arty for me to understand, but the American, Indian and Korean groups all did really interesting performances. The American one was called "Spheres" and was just them doing different things with spherical objects like volleyballs, a tetherball and those large exercise balls.
Another thing that I thought was interesting was that just down the beach from where we were (as well as thousands of other people enjoying life) the G20 Finance Sumit was going on discussing all about the world's problems these days. Not a protester in sight...hope Canada's $800 Million security is worth it....
Its so nice to live in a city that always has things going on! Next weekend is the Eobang festival where I'll be participating with Team Trinity in a rafting race!
Jun. 3rd, 2010
Wednesday was national municipal elections day. Its been a noisy few weeks leading up to the polls with loud speakers lining every street corner blaring election promises, trucks driving around with political messages blasting and huge groups of people bowing to you as you walk/drive by. Despite all this, in Korea Election Day = Holiday for many company and government offices. So it was a very welcome holiday. In fact I was hoping there would somehow be a tie and they'd have to go back to the polls...but that didn't happen.
Leading up to election day, I was trying to ask some students about what the day was called in English, and so I wrote "Election Day" on the board and asked the kids to read it. And the result was a mix between Election Day and Erection Day as its very hard for some Koreans to differentiate between the two sounds. I had a laugh! Gotta love Erection Day....
I ended up meeting Matt and Marissa for lunch. Marissa and I came to Korea around the same time, but we really haven't hung out at all. So it was really nice to hang out with them and share stories/thoughts about Korea.
After lunch I met up with Jun, his daughter Jinnie, Marie, Dave and Gabrielle (Italian co-worker of Jun). We headed out to Taejeongdae where we hopped on the little train to take us around as it was too far for Jinnie to walk. As we approached the Observation Area we noticed lots of ambulances on the road and saw a dead body on a stretcher being put into an ambulance. It was completely covered in a blanket. I'd assume it was a suicide as that area is well known for suicides. It was really strange to see. I hear that suicide is not uncommon in Korea, especially among young people because the stresses of society are too much to take.
On a happier note, we had a wonderful time walking around Taejongdae. I also ran into Anthony and Rosie (from Brock U.) there which was nice as I haven't seen them for several weeks. I was able to shoot with my new camera (Nikon D5000). The pictures are a bit small, but I'm really impressed by the quality of them! More photos to come!
I also have included a photo of a picture a student drew of me. I love it! I've been Koreanized!
Dave with Jinnie's Sponge Bob Bag
Dave and Gabe
Marie
Jinne and JunMay. 25th, 2010
Three day weekends, you have to love them! It just makes life so much better. Why can't we all just change the standard in society to a 4-day work week. It would be great!
This year for Buddha's Birthday, Hyesung, Chad and I decided we wanted to go and do something. First the idea of Shanghai, then Geoje-do, then Gyeongju, and briefly Ulsan, we finally ended up on going to Geoje-do for the day on Friday. It was a wonderfully relaxing time. We spent the whole day lazing around on Guroja Beach. We wanted to make our way to Oido Island but unfortunately the tickets were all sold out. We got back to Busan around 7:30 and had dinner in Nampodong. I miss Nampodong, such a great place. I should visit more often. The whole weekend was basically spent in and around Chad's apartment. The three of us had a great sleep over weekend.
Saturday and Sunday the heavens opened up and cancelled any plans people might have had for doing things outside. We tried to do the aquarium with Jason and his Belgian friend Christine , but no luck (huge lines) so we went and 'rode' a 3D movie (like something from Universal Studios). We then proceeded to Noraebang to kill a few hours which was lots of fun. We went back to Chad's where he prepared for us a wonderful spaghetti dinner. Mmmm, yummy! After dinner we started playing a lot of Korean games, which well..were amazing but it turns out it was not my night. I did terribly about them.
Sunday was a bit hard on me, but I had a great sleep in, and in the afternoon we went down to Busan Aquarium to see all the wonderful sea creatures which was really really fun. It's really relaxing just watching fish and sea creatures swimming by. They look so peaceful. I really loved watching the jelly fish, and turtles. Maybe I'll move on from having fish back home and upgrade to turtles? They seem a bit more fun, I think my dad had turtles when he was a kid so I'm sure he could take care of them ;-).
It's hard to believe that a year ago (in the lunar calendar) I spent this weekend with my parents doing a Temple Stay at Beomosa temple. Whew, time flies!
Nampodong at Night
Hyesung trapped in a bubble
Chad wishing he could be in their with themNavigate: (Previous 15 Entries)
